Method of meaning reconstruction

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Method of meaning reconstruction

Peter Vlasov

Abstract

The article considers verbal reaction to the object as a cumulative product of a man's culture that includes his values, knowledge, actions/instruments. As a result of the empirical research, through the use of the method of meaning reconstruction, we analyzed the society's attitude towards a social group of entrepreneurs and defined the modality of this image. To solve the tasks of the research, we applied the method of unfinished sentences and the method of thematic-rhematic segmentation of a sentence. We showed that the majority of the articulated judgments doesn't correspond the reality. This points to the society's stereotypical attitude towards this social group. The majority of the judgments represents negative image of entrepreneurs, which, in contrast to the positive image, is based on the logically validated conclusion and is especially differentiated in conceptual terms. Moreover, we discovered that the negative image is grounded on value-based beliefs in a much higher degree than the positive one. We showed that the consistent sequencing and classification of verbal reactions allow to reconstruct the verbal image and the meaning of the object for the subject.

Key words: meaning, entrepreneur, attitude, society, positive and negative image, stereotypes.

Problem setting

The situation of transitory economy is characterized by the uncertainty - as a changeability and lack of predictability in tasks, conditions and work demands. Contemporary development of society in our country with transitory economy is characterized by the active formation of organizations that have various fields of activity, resource model and organizational culture, that is are engaged in active entrepreneurial activity.

Enterpriser in an uncertain environment must be ready to create the concept and to identify the environmental conditions as favorable. Founders must accept/reject the strategies suitable for the environment they interact with.

Enterprisers as a social group are being formed anew, past traditions of entrepreneurial activity are lost because it was punishable in Soviet period.

But the group of enterprisers is productive and effective, this is the most active part of the society which forms the concept, creates companies, draws and transforms the resources, sets economic discourse of the society.

This leads to certain distortions in the perception of enterprisers as a group and of the discourse they create. And this is a problem, because the attitude impedes the development of economy and leaves economically active and productive social group without support.

That is why the image of social group of enterprisers requires special analysis for its further changing and transformation and for social construction of the society.

Since the image can't be observed directly, it demands special approach to studying it.

Hacker [3] supposed that basic function in the process of regulation is fulfilled by the «systems of operative reflection» that are represented in memory and define individual way of productive activity. These systems include: anticipation of the result of work, knowledge of the conditions of work (for example, knowledge of the material properties and principles of machinery functioning), hypotheses about transformations (operations) that are needed to pass from the factual, real condition/situation to the desired one. In scientific literature there is a notion of the image of future action as a conception of something. Basically, systems of operative reflection fulfill cognitive function of expectation forming and so represent a searching model that defines actions.

The chain «comparison-change-feedback» explains the nature of work activity as an interaction of a man and situation (work environment). The environment generates certain objective tasks about which a man forms his own subjective opinion like specific systems of operative reflection. In the process of their implementation he influences the situation by changing it.

Hacker [2] identified three levels of regulation: sensorimotor, perceptual-conceptual and intellectual. Intellectual level precedes the other two. On this level a man develops general plan of task performing. On the perceptual-conceptual level he regulates individual actions. On the sensorimotor level he regulates the process of task performing.

From the point of view of the quality of activity, Hacker [2] considered intellectual penetration into the essence of the activity structure to be the most important change of mental structure.

Mental process of sensabilization, automatization, verbalization and intellectual processing govern the quality of activity. So, subjective representation in a form of specific systems of operative reflection (let's label it «concepts or the image of future action») serves as a predictor of the result of activity. From this point we can speak about the quality of a concept: its functionality and productivity, possibility to use it for describing, explaining and predicting changes and for transforming the reality.

The concept may have different level of formation. This is especially interesting on the stage of the unformed concept, new valuable concept, for example, on the stage of the concept of future activity. Concept (P.K. Vlasov) - is a «value-cognitive-performative pattern that initiates organizational activity. In general, organizational activity on the stage of a concept organizes four basic components: needs (demands of physical and mental well-being); values (what initiators considers to be good or profitable and starts to act in order to keep or to get it); goals and intentions (situational-specific form of values, certain object or the goal of action); and emotions (the form under which a man feels the changes of meaning of the resources) [6].

Taking into account all this, it is interesting to investigate the possibility to analyze the trajectory of concept life, to predict its reference in activity. So a question arises: how is it possible to investigate the concept of activity? [6]

Since communication (verbalization) is a way of forming and realizing the concept of activity (according to Hacker [3]), verbal reflection of the concept of activity is rather representative for the description, for studying the concept of activity and for predicting the activity itself.

Hacker supposed that the system of operative reflection «works» in the interaction of a man and situation (work environment) in a chain «comparison - change-feedback».

Subject's verbal reaction to the object reflects verbal image of this object. To be specific, the system of knowledge (morphology), attitude towards an object (axiology) and instrumental relation/action (praxiol - ogy) of an object [4]. Such verbal reaction is a partial or full description of the object. In fact, description that a man builds is anthropocentric, that is it bears a trace of a man's subjective attitude towards object.

As a rule, verbal reactions (texts) are not considered from such point of view. For example, in linguistics text/meaning of a text is linear, that is logically derived from the meaning of linguistic units of a text. In sociology, the meaning of the objects is generally viewed as most frequent reactions of a group of respondents towards an object, it is also linear (only form the respondent's position). We propose to view verbal reaction towards object as a total product of a man's culture that includes his values, knowledge, actions/instruments. Such reaction reflects subject's concept in relation to the object. Through his verbal reaction a man interprets the object, so to say «embeds» it into his own subjective context. A man creates his own individual discourse of the objects in which his individual construction of social world is reflected. Through his verbal reaction a man constructs social world that includes this object as well.

From the point of view of system approach, verbal reaction is an element of interaction between a man and an object, and the meaning of such verbal reaction is system effect that consists simultaneously of object's and subject's characteristics. So on the basis of verbal reaction we can study both the object for a certain group of subjects and to make inferences about the group itself (its system of values, attitudes, knowledge, actions).

So in order to analyze verbal reflection of the concept of activity we need an isomorphic structure of activity, on the one hand, and a man, on the other. This structure should reflect the dynamics of these relations and allow to predict activity.

As a basis of such structure we adopted hierarchical model of activity description developed by G.V. Sukhodolsky. It includes:

- elements and structures that define morphology of activity;

- needs, values that fulfill them and estimates that reflect them define axiology of activity;

- development and functioning define praxiology of activity;

- existence, characteristics and cognition express ontological aspect of the world [4].

Research method

We propose an approach and method of meaning reconstruction. By decomposing subject's verbal reaction, breaking it into elements, we propose to consistently identify all subjective elements, «imprinted» in respondent's verbal reaction, to reconstruct the meaning of object and so to reconstruct subjective concept, construction of the subjective social world with the help of which a man attributes meaning to the object.

The structure of the approach is as following.

Morphology of activity is a content of activity, its correlation with concrete activity and with objects included in it. These objects are included into verbal description, chosen by a man for oriented activity. Linguistic equivalent of morphology of activity are the concepts included into description, their quantity. Semantics of concepts points to the content of activity and its orientation. The quantity of concepts tells about cognitive complexity and the level of differentiation and so - about man's awareness of concepts, its availability and controllability of activity.

To reconstruct the whole concept of activity we can't use one single method, since we didn't manage to find such method in literature. So we decided that a complex of methods is needed that will allow to reconstruct the concept of activity.

Linguistic equivalent of axiology and values that take part in activity is the weight (frequency) of concepts and their emotional evaluation, that is emphases in morphology. Frequency and evaluative structure forms hierarchical structure of the concept of activity and tells about man's priorities and attitude towards activity.

Praxiology of activity description is formed by explanatory pattern disclosing what lies behind a given description (the reason for choosing these very elements in this very hierarchical and evaluative structure). It uncovers man's motives that trigger the concept. Explicit and implicit logical-semantic webs of connections included into description can serve as a linguistic equivalent of praxiology. They uncover intentional nature of utterances. Praxiology uncovers basic driving motive, development and functioning of man's activity.

Key concepts that form the description and their hierarchy serve as parametric criteria of comparison and allow to compare different concepts or the concepts of different people and to study them. This forms gnoseological level of activity description.

The context in which there arises a possibility for the appearance and existence of such concept of activity expresses ontological level of activity description. This level doesn't have direct linguistic equivalents, that is those that have no explicit reflection in the text of description. It is reflected in basic presuppositions that allow the very context of activity description to exist. It may be expressed in archetypes, ethnical stereotypes that explain the origin and existence of a concept.

Methodically, it looks like a sequence of the stages of meaning reconstruction.

• The selection of meaningful reactions. Formal reactions need to be separated from meaningful ones in order for the data to be consistent and informative. Formal reactions are not informative, they express stereotypical emotional attitude. Judgments and wishes can also be included here.

• Reconstruction of the morphology of an object. It includes thematic classification of verbal reactions with the help of the method of thematic-rhematic segmentation of a sentence [3]. In each utterance we have isolated a theme (what the sentence is about) and a rheme (what is specifically told about this psychological subject). The use of this method was based on the structuralist tradition of differential organization of signs [5, pp. 253-291]. The rhemes of utterance are contrasted with the themes on the basis of syntactical construction of a sentence. The themes in a normal structure of a sentence usually take place of the subject, the rhemes take place of predicate. With the change of «normal» structure of a sentence, a certain object becomes especially noticeable, that is it takes place of a rheme. The result of this stage is thematic, that is morphological, structure of an object.

• Axiological structure of an object.

- includes classification of verbal reactions in relation to their modality within thematic groups into positive, negative and neutral utterances.

- Includes frequency classification of semantically connected rhemes. Semantically close rhemes unite into classes and their frequency is defined. The most frequent rhemes and those with positive estimate reflect the value of the elements of morphology of objects. The result of this stage is reconstruction of the axiological structure of an object.

• Reconstruction of praxiology.

- Positive and negative image. All identified elements of the morphology of an object with positive and negative axiology (the most frequent rhemes with positive or negative estimation) allow to reconstruct an integral image of an object. On this stage we used the method of narrative semiotics (structural semantics (Greimas, Propp, Pearce [5, p. 173]). It supposes identification of the surface and deep structure of the level of syntax. Surface structure is immediately recognized and easily accessed from text. Deep structure is a fundamental system of values embedded into a text (consists of norms and values). Narrative structure is defined by basic roles (actants) and the relationships and their movement towards one another. The result of this stage is a narrative pattern or an integral image of an object showing elements of morphology, their axiology and relations between them.

- Reconstruction of intentions. It includes reconstruction of social intentions that «trigger» the resultant image. Verbal reaction reflect performative component as well - intentions of a group of respondents. On this stage we used methods of functional pragmatics (K. Buhler, C. Morris and Karnap), based on the theory of action (J. Austin). Basic instrument on this stage is a linguistic pattern that reconstructs the purpose for which an actor undertakes the action. To reconstruct an intention, we used the following question: «Which needs are met and what are the expectations of a group during the interaction with this object?» Positive image reflects satisfied expectations/intentions, and negative one reflects frustrated expectations/intentions.

* Reconstruction of gnoseology.

Semantic scales and thesaurus of object description. It includes contrasting of negative, positive and neutral images. They contain shared elements of morphology. They are «prevailing» that is they form basic scales of object description. On the basis of such notions, we can restore the whole scale if we propose their antonyms. As a result, we got the scales by which the group of respondents «measures» an object by showing certain attitude towards it. The resultant generalized scales, reconstructed intentions and synthesized image can be considered to be the end of a procedure.

Participants of the research

We want to illustrate this using the example of empirical research of the meaning of image of social group of enterprisers that was conducted using the method of random sampling (5000 respondents during the period 1995-1998, in Ukraine). The research has pointed to the explicit multidimensional nature of the meaning of category «enterpriser» [7]. Basic social, gender and age groups are proportionally represented in a sample.

Purpose of the research

We wanted to define the thesaurus of notions that describe attitudes towards social group of enterprisers. We also wanted to synthesize the notions included into description into general image, that is to define relations between them and the modality of image.

Objective difficulty of research lies in the fact that an image doesn't have direct expression and is hidden from the direct observation. In order to research it, it should be explicated.

Besides, new social groups and institutions are still on a stage of formation, so an attitude towards them and their image are not yet fully formed and don't have a representation clearly expressed and embedded in social environment. These limitations should be taken into account when planning and conducting experiment.

The conception of research was based on the following: attitude towards social-economic space is formed on the basis of the image of the world and is a synthesis of one's own already existing knowledge about the world and changes in environment. We have taken into account a subject's tendency to perceive an object as a whole and have called it image integrity. Image has verbal expression, exists in a form of utterances, judgments and has conceptual saturation. The measure of notions' variety that describe image was called image differentiation.

The notions in image are in a certain connection with each other (cause-effect, sort-kind, part-whole, attribution). This was called image coherence. The image of social group much or less fits the reality, that is it possesses adequacy, reality. Image has emotional - evaluative component, that is modality: positive, negative and neutral. In such case positive, negative or neutral attitude towards social groups is demonstrated.

To gather data, we used method of unfinished sentences since it allows the participants to freely express their judgments not taking into account that social group of enterprisers was new and unknown phenomenon for them. To process judgments we used method of meaning reconstruction that was introduced above.

For our survey we used method of interviewing respondents. They were asked to finish the sentence: «What can you tell about…?» The answers were fixed word for word.

Results and discussion

The resultant judgments were analyzed in relation to the criterion of reality. We found out that the majority of judgments (73%) were not connected with company's real behavior in the market. This is shown in the following statements: «I don't know what it does, but I know that it cheats on trusting people», «This is simply a siphoning of money», «Firms open up to become rich at the expense of people, they don't hope to work forever, that is why they exist due to the deception», «Normal laws are needed in order for normal companies to exist». On the one hand, it points to the lack of awareness of the respondents. On the other hand, it points to their activity in forming judgments. The existence of judgments in situation of absence of information points to the fact they are stereotypical and unreal. So the image of enterprisers is also unreal and expresses stereotypical attitude towards this social group. Since this image is unreal, the notions included in it can also be unrepresentative for the description of this social group.

We have also analyzed modality of judgments and found out that:

* 25% of judgments have positive modality. For

example, «I think the company is rich, if it will issue

stocks, they can be bought», «I think the company has money, so they work effectively», «The main thing is to work for people, if it works for them, then it is good'.

* 60% of judgments have negative modality.

For example: «They can go bankrupt any moment»,

«Charlatans who lie and steal», «Like all companies, try to make money out of air».

* 9% of judgments have neutral modality. For example: «I am tolerant towards any form of activity»,

«I don't mind at all, let it flourish, but without me», «I didn't interact with them, my attitude is calm».

* 6% of judgments - respondents didn't express any attitude referring to the lack of information. That is stereotypical judgments fix negative attitude of social environment towards this social group.

After that we have chosen the most frequent judgments and obtained positive and negative linguistic attribution of social group of «enterprisers». We have identified the thesaurus that describes image of this social group and have decided that the notions that are included in stereotypes are located depending on modality of the poles of the following scales:

Scales of notions that form stereotypical image of «enterprisers'

So at the current moment the image of social group of enterprisers is differentiated in relation to these conceptual scales. With their help social environment describes, structures and evaluates the manifestations of this social group.

Since we were interested not only in notions, structure and relations between them and in integral image as well, we have synthesized them and built an image of a group that enjoys positive or negative attitude from social environment.

At the current moment there is the following positive image:

Thoughtful and rational proprietor who is able to correctly deal with financial resources, makes contributions into basic fields of industry, production. Works with scope and power. His activity is oriented towards profit of the state, in a sense of circle, community of people. It is open and available; everybody can interact with it. That is the reason why it is reliable and long - lived.

Negative image: organization is engaged in not prestigious and simple business like resale (commercial activity), money laundry (financial activity). Since it is simple and irrational, it doesn't have the scope, or it has a success but only thanks to the deceptions, dishonest action, charlatanism and cheating on others.

So consistent ordering and classification of verbal reactions allows to reconstruct verbal image and the meaning of object for the subject.

It's important to note that negative image is more represented and differentiated that the positive one. So social environment is ready to perceive the manifestations of this group rather negatively than positively.

It is worth noting that negative image, unlike positive one, is based on logically grounded inferences (statements) and is more conceptually differentiated that the positive one. It means that nowadays in economic culture positive attitude became fixed for such form of entrepreneurship as handicrafts which are the prototypes of production. Negative attitude was formed towards usury and trade. Besides, negative image is much more based on values beliefs that the positive one. That is why negative image of enterprisers and entrepreneurial organizations is much more conservative. In this case, again, causal role of values is evident which is expressed in actions through beliefs - values of negative image activate actions towards enterprisers and organizations significantly quicker than the values of positive image. So social environment now is ready to perceive the manifestations of this social group rather in a negative manner, that in a positive one.

Such company is unable to attach others. That is why it is unavailable, closed and isolated, not involved in what is happening, is not a part of community, alien. Since it is simple and lacks the scope, its financial resource is limited. That is it is unreliable, short-lived, temporal and will go bankrupt anyway. Such company is unable to do something for people. If it does something, than only with the purpose of self-advertising in order to better cheat and hide its interests.

References

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3. Matesius, V. O tak nazyvayemom actualnom chlenenii predlozhenija (On a so-called actual segmentation of sentence) //Prague linguistic circle, Moscow, 1967.

4. Sukhodolsky, G.V. Vvedenije v matematiko - psyhologitcheskuju teoriju dejatelnosti (Introduction into mathematical-psychological theory of activity). Saint-Petersburg, 1998.

5. Ticher, S., Meyer, M., Vodak, R., Vetter, E. Metody analiza teksta i diskursa (Methods of analysis of text and discourse). Kharkov, 2009.

6. Vlasov P.K. Psyhologija zamysla organizatsii (Psychology of the concept of organization). Kharkov, 2004.

7. Vlasov P.K., Ganchuk V.S. Organizatsionno - psihologicheskoye issledovanie integratsii v organizatsii (Organizational-psychological research of integration in organization) //Vestnik of Kharkov State University. Series «Psychology», 1997. Issue №395.

8. Vlasov P.K., Manichev S.A., Sukhodolsky G.V. Organizatsionnaja psihologija (Organizational psychology). Saint-Petersburg, Kharkov, 2008.

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